The Conservatives have lost control of West Oxfordshire District Council in yesterday's elections.
Hugo Ashton (pictured) won the Burford, Taynton and Fulbrook ward vacated by the retirement of Conservative councillor Derek Cotterill. The result was as follows:
Hugo Ashton (LD) 511 votes
Craig Brown (C) 202
George Richmond (Lab) 58
Rosie Pearson captured the Brize Norton and Shilton ward (which includes Asthall and Swinbrook) on behalf of the Green Party from the sitting Conservative councillor. Alex Postan.
Rosie Pearson (Green) 383 votes
Alex Postan (C) 321
Overall the Conservatives lost seven of the 11 seats they were defending - five to the Lib Dems, one to Labour plus the Brize Norton seat to the Greens. As a small consolation they won Ascott and Shipton from the Liberal Democrats. They now hold 26 of the 49 seats. We understand that the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Green parties will form a coalition to control the council, in the same way as they have done on the county council since last year's elections.
Hugo Ashton described the night's counting as follows:
It took a long time to get started last night for no clear reason, but then it became an exciting night with Rosie Pearson winning Brize Norton for the Greens as a first result, which was particularly important as they had stood down in Burford for me.
There were at least three results which required recounts as the difference was between 3 and 5 votes. The Lib Dems came out top on two and lost one.
Burford Ward was almost the last to be counted (at 5am!) and thanks to the amazing effort of you all, we managed to get a 48% turnout, which was the second highest of the night and 511 electors voted for me (66%). It is extremely gratifying that we all got the message out to "vote local”. (I suppose we should also acknowledge that there might have been a small impact from trickledown national despair with our governing party!!)
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